Midnight Tantrums
by basket-case1880
Summary: Entry for the Mix and Match challenge over on CCOAC. Emily and Spencer have a little trouble with their little family one cold winter's night. First Criminal Minds story.


**Midnight Tantrums by basket-case1880**

**Summary: Entry for the Mix and Match Challenge over on CCOAC. Emily and Spencer have a little trouble with their little family one winter's night.**

**A/N: My pairing in the challenge was Emily and Spencer and my prompts were:**

**Teddy bear**

**Cold night**

**3 year old**

**Whispered words of "I love you"**

**This is my first Criminal Minds story and I hope y'all like it. I know it seems rather cliché but I likes the cheese sometimes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these two wonderful characters, however much I wish I did. I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back after I've finished with them. I do, however, own Mallory and Matthew. They are all mine, even if they wouldn't normally be my first choice of names, my muse struck and told me that was the names I was to use, and there is no use arguing with my muse, she can be very stubborn.**

* * *

It was one of the coldest nights of the year so far and Emily Prentiss-Reid was not tucked up in her comfy, warm bed with her husband like she wanted to. Instead, she was routing around in the back of the family car looking for the elusive Mr Snuffles.

Mr Snuffles was a teddy bear that belonged to a very stubborn 3 year old girl called Mallory Penelope Reid who refused to go to bed until her mommy found him for her since he was her "favouritest teddy from her favouritest auntie in the whole wide world" as she so aptly reminded Emily when she woke up screaming that Mr Snuffles had been stolen at 12am.

The little girl's screams were so loud that they had woken one year old Matthew Derek Reid, and so, Emily's husband, Spencer Reid, was currently trying to get the youngest member of the family back to sleep. All the while feeling guilty for not being able to help since the little boy was going through a "daddy phase" and would scream if Emily tried to put him to bed.

* * *

Just then, Emily's hand closed around the soft material of the desired teddy bear and pulled it out from the back of the seats in the family Sedan, extremely curious of how it got there, but at the same time not at all surprised since Mallory could get into the most peculiar situations just like her dad. That thought brought a smile to Emily's face as she relocked the house and reset the alarm and headed back up to her daughter's room.

Clutching her quarry in one hand, Emily used her other hand to brace herself on the door frame when Mallory ploughed right into her legs with a huge thank you hug. Emily picked up her daughter and headed into her son's room to let Spencer know that the mysterious toy had been found.

"That's great," Spencer smiled. "But Mallory, you shouldn't have screamed like you did. Now we can't get Matthew back to bed. I know this sounds like a treat, but since it is a cold night why don't we snuggle up in mommy and daddy's bed with a bedtime story to try and get you two back to sleep?"

"That sounds like a plan, Spence," Emily agreed. "And you, little miss, will find out your punishment in the morning. You need to learn that you don't scream like that at all in the house. Not at night and not during the day.

Mallory just nodded her head while submitting an apology through a yawn.

* * *

Ten minutes later, after Spencer had read one chapter of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, both Mallory and Matthew were fast asleep in their parents arms.

At the same moment, both Emily and Spencer looked over their children's heads and knew that despite how busy and changed their lives had become since they met, they wouldn't change it for the world.

"I love you," Emily whispered as she felt Spencer take her hand in his.

"I love you, too, Emily," Spencer returned as he lifted their joined hands to his lips and pressed a soft but loving kiss on the back of Emily's hand.

Then the couple drifted off to sleep with dreams of their family and future together.

**Please review, would like some views on whether I should write Criminal Minds again.**


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